Rabs Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 3 minutes ago, Dub-T-123 said: Oh man that’s clever beveling the block like that for both angles. Now that’s a cool tip https://www.ebay.com/itm/35-90-Degree-Fret-Bevel-Tool-with-file-TBEV002/303463360940?hash=item46a7d369ac:g:hBYAAOSwlBtesBEP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted November 15, 2020 Author Share Posted November 15, 2020 Truss rod is in thar. Need to put a little block in the slot where the bottom TRC screw goes Here’s the fretboard drilled for inlays Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted November 15, 2020 Author Share Posted November 15, 2020 Inlays glued in Fretboard cut to width and inlays filed/sanded flush to the fretboard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted November 15, 2020 Author Share Posted November 15, 2020 Here they are fretted and ready to be trimmed. Sorry I don’t have a better pic on that it was getting a little late so I was powering through this part. The frets are pressed in with a radiused caul and they came out soo nice. They are perfect and much better than I could have done with a hammer so I’m stoked with that. I wrapped them in plastic because I want to keep them clean at this point. btw notice the board on top is from my buddy Carlos at work. The last few inlays got a little shifted towards the bottom of his board. We made a whole jig for that and the template was off at the bottom 4 frets so I shifted the template over when I drilled my last 4 holes to compensate. Overall we pretty much did every trick in the book to avoid tear out when drilling for the inlays. I used a brand new (cheap) brad point, burnished a piece of masking tape to the face of the board to support the grain, drilled super slowly, and pressed the template firmly into the board to prevent the grain from lifting around the hole. The results were really good. There is no gap or tear out to be filled around the inlays Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted November 15, 2020 Share Posted November 15, 2020 Nice job sir dots are pretty easy as they go but then as you know its very easy to screw up too... Try some trapezoids 🙂 You know that when you glue the fretboard on you should cover the trussrod with some tape.. Always best not to get glue in there.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted November 15, 2020 Author Share Posted November 15, 2020 Thanks bud! Despite the relative ease the bit that I had REALLY wanted to tear out on my sample so I was fortunate that everything worked out. I can imagine how much trickier other shapes are! We are gonna have our CNC guy make us some 12” radius clamping cauls to glue the fretboards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merciful-evans Posted November 15, 2020 Share Posted November 15, 2020 Did you glue the frets when you pressed them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted November 15, 2020 Author Share Posted November 15, 2020 Hey ME not yet I’m going to trim the fret ends and then use a thin super glue with a fine applicator to wick super glue down the slot/tang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle fester Posted November 15, 2020 Share Posted November 15, 2020 your my hero - nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted November 16, 2020 Author Share Posted November 16, 2020 Thanks Uncle Fester! I did some work on the fret ends last night and started the side dots. One fretboard is all ready to be glued, the other will be ready tonight. I probably should have drilled locating pins on the fretboard before I installed the frets and inlays but no prob. I’m going to use the template to make matching blind holes in the neck and fretboard. Here’s a video of Ben showing us how it’s properly done (aka not the way I’m gonna do it now lol) https://youtu.be/MX1cxFKRXG4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted November 19, 2020 Author Share Posted November 19, 2020 DIY radiused caul 😛 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Posted November 20, 2020 Share Posted November 20, 2020 Very nice, I love the grain of the fret board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted November 20, 2020 Author Share Posted November 20, 2020 Thanks retired! I’m hoping to glue the fretboard today so I can start shaping the neck first thing tomorrow. Got the rest of the side dot inlays done in anticipation (fret ends haven’t been filed on this board). Not a great pic but there’s a little bit of super glue around the holes. When the whole thing is filed/scraped/sanded that will disappear Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted November 20, 2020 Author Share Posted November 20, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merciful-evans Posted November 20, 2020 Share Posted November 20, 2020 Going by those last two pics, that looks a terrific job from here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted November 21, 2020 Author Share Posted November 21, 2020 Why thankyou ME 😃 I cracked open a beer, eyeballed the marks with a scribing awl, and let it rip with a handheld drill. It was the least precise part of the build process so far but the work area is small enough that I can probably eyeball it more precisely than I could measure/mark it. It looks great in person. Doesn’t look wonky or homemade yet at this point I’m feeling good. Watching lots of neck shaping videos on YouTube tonight trying to soak up any more info before I dive in tomorrow. The fretboard is not getting glued on today after all. Just didn’t have time before work this morning to do it properly. I’ll get it done first thing tomorrow morning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tman Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 scribing awl, radiused caul , brad point....... You've got the terminology down. Impressive job you are doing, very pro. Going to be fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted November 21, 2020 Author Share Posted November 21, 2020 For extra credit points I used the secret scribing awl from the bottom of a compound square 🤓 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 Good stuff.. All looking good so far 🙂 The three best bits for me are. Getting the neck glued on to the body, putting finish on the wood and then the first strum... Cool to see someone else on here doing it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 1 hour ago, Rabs said: Good stuff.. All looking good so far 🙂 The three best bits for me are. Getting the neck glued on to the body, putting finish on the wood and then the first strum... Cool to see someone else on here doing it It was always interesting watching you build your guitars Rabs, Now we can watch someone else do the builds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabs Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 1 minute ago, Retired said: It was always interesting watching you build your guitars Rabs, Now we can watch someone else do the builds. Cheers.. Hopefully I will get back to it soon and will post some more... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted November 22, 2020 Author Share Posted November 22, 2020 Yesterday was a big day! I glued the fretboard on first which was more work than I was expecting. I didn’t have a toothpick so rather than go across the street to buy some, I made a 1/16” dowel out of maple lol That went well though and I love the fretboard locating pin trick despite the fact I did it in just about the most difficult way possible While that was clamped up I got the body all sanded since it will be much more difficult to sand when it’s all put together Then I started shaping the neck which was the most fun part so far. It feels great at this point, I like the profile. I’m just going to take a bit more meat off the “shoulders” so it feels more like my R9 but I’m really happy so far. Just need a little more work on the heel and headstock transitions, removing a couple little bumps, and sanding. I almost don’t want to post a pic right now because it’s going to get quite refined in the next pic but here we are at this stage after the preliminary rough shaping 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle fester Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Hey Dub - looking awesome. Sorry if i missed it in the thread, what scale length are you going? I could only find 25.5 pre cut fretboard materials, but was hoping to find 24.75? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle fester Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 On 11/19/2020 at 1:57 PM, Dub-T-123 said: DIY radiused caul 😛 Very cool, but since you purchased the fretboard pre-radiused, what are you going to do with this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub-T-123 Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 Thanks Fester I’m using the Indian rosewood board from here https://www.stewmac.com/tonewoods/electric-guitar-bodies-and-necks-and-wood/electric-guitar-fingerboards/slotted-fingerboard-for-gibson-guitar.html?lac_guid=da0a718e-e113-eb11-8102-ecb1d775572b&utm_campaign=EMAIL-SHP&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Shipment_Confirmation What are you planning on building? The radiused caul is really useful. You can use it to sand your inlays flush, sand the board without changing the radius, and you can use it to clamp the fretboard to the neck. I cut slots on that caul in the pattern of the frets so that the caul only touches the rosewood and not the frets. Then used it to clamp the fretboard to the neck. The reason you want to clamp with a radiused caul is to apply even clamping pressure to the radiused fretboard. If you used a flat piece on top of the fretboard while clamping for example it would press the center of the fretboard harder than the outer edges. If you used a caul with a smaller radius it would press the outer edges more than the center of the board Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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